If you like taking an evening stroll, walking your dog, or even hitting the pavement for exercise sake, you could be putting yourself at risk according to a recent report from the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Thestatistics are shocking; the report looked at how many pedestrians were killedby vehicles while walking in 2018, and it was not only a 4 percent increasefrom 2017, but the highest rate of death since 1990.

Whyare these numbers rising? There are a couple of reasons. First, there are moreSUVs and trucks on the road, and these vehicles are more likely to kill someonedue to the weight and size. In fact, since 2013, the number of pedestriandeaths caused by SUVs has risen by 50 percent. Another reason for this is thatpeople are not paying attention, both behind the wheel and on the pavement.Why? Smartphones. Alcohol was also to blame, as about half of the deathsreported in 2017 was caused by alcohol consumption by either the pedestrian,the driver, or in many cases, both. Of course, there is also the fact that thepopulation has grown, so there are naturally more people out and about on thestreets.

Populationgrowth might not seem like a big deal, but the statistics show otherwise. Whenyou look at the states that have had the highest population growth from 2017 to2018, you also see that there is an increase of the number of deaths frompedestrians getting hit by vehicles. There has also been an increase in thenumber of people who are walking to work instead of driving when you look atstatistics from 2007 to 2016.

TheGovernors Highway Safety Association also reports another unsurprising fact;the majority of these deaths are occurring after dark, and when comparing thenumber of pedestrian deaths during the day and at night, the nighttime deathsare rising quickly when compared to daytime deaths. When you look at the numberof nighttime deaths between 2008 and 2017, there was an increase of 45 percent.When looking at daytime pedestrian deaths, there is also an 11 percent increasebetween those same years.

If you are looking for a safe place to walk around, consider New Hampshire. There was only one death in the first half of 2018. On the other end of the spectrum, New Mexico had the highest rate of pedestrian deaths. Almost half of all pedestrian deaths in the United States occurred in Florida, Arizona, Texas, California, and Georgia. None of us should have to worry about crossing the street, and this might be a sign that it’s time to improve vehicle design and improvements to the road.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.